The Beauty of Not Planning (aka I'm leaving on Saturday!)

Last week, my dad posted a couple of photos from the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival.  He also said that he and my mom were heading down to Walt Disney World to catch the end of the festival.  They had invited us when he booked the trip but I declined.  My husband couldn't get away from work and I didn't want to go without him.  But then I saw those pictures from Dad and that afternoon, Tink started in on me about wanting to meet princesses.  Next thing I know, I had agreed to the trip.  (A big thanks to my blogorail friends for being the best enablers ever.)

Now Tink, Baby Minnie, and I will be joining DisneyDad and Mom on their trip.  And we leave on Saturday.  AAACCCKKKK!  I have one week to get us ready.  Thank goodness this isn't my first rodeo and I already have packing spreadsheets.  My parents weren't going to make any ADRs (advance dining reservations) for their trip but now that the little girls are going, I'm making a loose plan and a couple of ADRs so that Tink can have breakfast with Minnie.  I've been working on the plan for our November trip recently since we are almost at our 180 day window but we'll save the bigger things for that trip.

Now to the title of this article---The Beauty of Not Planning.  I am the family trip planner.  I make the spreadsheets and work the plan until we have every park and ADR scheduled.  I've done this for years and while I can throw together a basic plan pretty quickly, it's nice to have nothing in my "events" column.  No races, no big milestones; just time for the kiddos to play, grandparents to enjoy watching the little ones in the parks, and if I'm lucky, for me to take photos with my new camera.  My big must-dos this visit are let Tink play on the playsets at Epcot (I WISH they'd keep some version of those up year round.  Pretty please.) and at Magic Kingdom, I want to have silhouettes done of the girls.  I've looked at the attractions I think they would like best and am thinking in terms of this YEAR.  If they don't see something in May, we'll get there in November.  We'll just go with the flow and let the magic happen.  There's no time to plan much at this point and also no pressure to do so since we won't have been looking forward to the trip for long.

This will officially be Minnie's first Walt Disney World trip but I am also considering it a testing ground for the longer, busier vacation this fall.  I've decided to go with the two stroller option rather than buying or renting another double stroller.  While I think now that this will really work for us, it's nice to have a chance to try it out.  And I am way overpacking since it's short notice, especially on food for the girls.  Minnie has learned to eat from these baby food packs in the last couple of days and is a really good eater in general.  However, Tink has turned three and is still hard to feed away from home but it's getting better.  I took her to WDW at 12 and 18 months and really wished on the second trip that I had carried more food for her.  Yes, I will be the park sherpa this time but this is a short phase in our lives and if I have to drag more around than I'd like for a trip or three, well, that's ok.

I may not be around much this week as I scramble to get us all ready to go but stick with us and next week, DisneyDad and I will be posting our adventure from the parks.  See you real soon!